On the way to the modern steel helmet

Hardly any piece of equipment is so strongly associated with the life of a soldier as the helmet. No wonder, the helmet is an indispensable piece of equipment that protects the control center of our body. It is surprising that the history of ballistic helmets is relatively young and began in the 20th century, about 600 years after the first documented use of firearms in Europe.

At the beginning of trench warfare in World War I, all sides were quickly confronted with an increased incidence of penetrating and blunt skull-brain trauma. Just on the German side, head injuries from primary and secondary projectiles accounted for a quarter of the total losses. This was the birth of the classic steel helmet. Steel helmets in various forms were used by almost all sides involved, and they continued to be used unchanged in subsequent conflicts such as World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

With Vietnam as an asymmetrical war in a tropical environment, it became clear that the protective effect of the classic steel helmet, as well as the lack of comfort (many soldiers simply stopped wearing their helmets after a while), resulted in the most common immediate cause of death being a penetrating trauma to the head region. The classic M1 steel helmet (pictured) of the G.I.s also did not provide sufficient protection surface in this regard.

This, combined with the demand for more effective body armor, led to the PASGT (Personal Armor System for Ground Troops) program of the US Army. The new helmets were required to have a larger protection area combined with a higher weight.

The resulting PASGT helmet was no longer made of steel, but of the then new Kevlar fiber. A total of 29 layers of Kevlar under a protective coating were able to provide significantly higher protection and coverage at a low weight. The concept of a Kevlar helmet also influenced the German Bundeswehr with their combat helmet, which is still used in most units to this day.

Despite all these groundbreaking advances, the PASGT solution was only used for a short time for helmets. By the mid-90s, vehicle crews were demanding a more comfortable helmet that allowed the use of communication sets. This led to the introduction of the CVC (Combat Vehicle Crewman) helmet. The CVC helmet was not only well received by armored units but also enthusiastically adopted by special forces. The experiences showed that the deep neck protection and wide "ears" of the PASGT helmet had two significant disadvantages. One was the helmet slipping in front of the user's eyes when lying down with a ballistic vest, and the other was that ground troops were increasingly using communication sets and active hearing protection.

The "lessons learned" from this period ultimately led to the development of the MICH (Modular Integrated Communications Helmet) in the TC 2000, 2001, and 2002 patterns for special forces and the ACH (essentially a slightly modified TC 2000) for the combat troops. The MICH helmet has been successfully used by all branches of the US military since 2003.

Competition in the special forces world never stops: on one hand, it's about the age-old question of how light a helmet can be and how much it must protect. On the other hand, the helmet is becoming more than just head protection. It becomes an integrated system that accommodates protective goggles, hearing protection, IR light markings, video cameras, night vision devices, and several other items. Ops-Core has sparked a revolutionary development with its helmet rails. Crye has taken a different route with an even lighter helmet with a two-part shell. Team Wendy is currently following suit with its own range of helmets.

The trend seems to be moving towards the integration of even more technology on the head. BAE Systems recently introduced its "Q-Warrior." To finish, the video shows what it can do:

Special THX to Felix